Over the past few years, lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries have begun replacing nickel-cadmium (NiCd), nickel-metal-hydride (NiMH), and lead-acid batteries in low-voltage, portable electronic devices such as notebook-type personal computers and cordless power tools. As compared to NiCd and NiMH batteries, Li-ion batteries are lighter but have a larger capacity per unit volume. For this reason, the Li-ion batteries are suitable to low-voltage devices that are preferably light and which are required to endure continuous use for a long time.
Li-ion batteries may rapidly deteriorate when subjected to overcharging, over-discharging, overheating, or over-cooling conditions. A Li-ion battery pack may include functionality to protect against fault conditions inside and outside the battery pack. The present disclosure provides a battery pack configured to shutdown or reduce current flow when subjected to adverse conditions. Further, a reset mechanism is provided to guard against unexpected startup of a device powered by the battery pack after a shutdown event. The reset mechanism may require user interaction to ensure that resetting the battery pack after a shutdown event is done intentionally.
The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.